request for information (rfi) on technology for …...request for information on the topic of...

Request for Information (RFI) on

Technology for Cognitive Capabilities for

Public Safety Communications

Working Document WINNF-10-RFI-0009

Version V1.0.0

16 May 2011

Public Safety SIG

RFI for Cognitive Capabilities

WINNF-10-RFI-0009- V1.0.0

Copyright © 2011 The Software Defined Radio Forum Inc Page i

All Rights Reserved

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... iii

Contributors ................................................................................................................................... iv

1 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 1

2 Glossary ................................................................................................................................. 2

3 Instructions ............................................................................................................................ 2

4 RFI Questions ........................................................................................................................ 3 4.1 Interoperability for Public Safety.....................................................................................4

4.2 Coverage Improvement ....................................................................................................5 4.3 Spectrum Utilization Optimization and Dynamic Spectrum Access ...............................6

4.4 Communicate Reconfiguration Information ....................................................................7 4.5 Manage Communications Resources ...............................................................................7 4.6 Support Incident Command .............................................................................................8

4.7 Rollback Configuration Changes .....................................................................................9

5 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 10

Appendix 1 Additional Information on the Wireless Innovation Forum and Public Safety

Special Interest Group................................................................................................................... 11

Appendix 2 Key Concepts/Issues for Public Safety Communications ...................................... 12

Appendix 3 Related Efforts .......................................................................................................... 14

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Executive Summary

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit inputs for an assessment of

Cognitive Radio (CR) technology. This assessment is to specifically identify the state of

cognitive radio technologies that can provide public safety users with improved functional

capabilities, and in particular the capabilities that are identified in two cognitive radio use case

documents previously published by the Public Safety Special Interest Group (SIG) of the

Wireless Innovation Forum.

The primary output of this technology assessment effort will be a report, generated by the SIG,

which will be directed at readers in positions of public safety community leadership, users,

researchers, and product developers. The report will help “de-mystify” CR for the leadership

and users and provide regulators, policy makers, and standards developers with increased

awareness of future technological developments and trends. Researchers and product developers

will benefit from the report’s identification of technology gaps and dependencies to help define

future studies and developments. The report will also be valuable to public safety agencies to

help plan communications system life cycles and identify near-term opportunities for

enhancement of functional capabilities along with longer-term trends.

These responses will help set a broad research, development and implementation agenda to the

community and will be communicated to entities such as the FCC and public safety audiences.

Organizations and individuals providing responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will be

referenced in the report for their contributions (unless they elect to remain anonymous) and thus

can benefit from the enhanced exposure to their potential customers. Furthermore, these

responses can help steer the direction taken by potential customers for future systems and

technologies.

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Contributors

Peter G. Cook Hypres, Inc.

Fred Frantz L-3 Communications

Phil Harris L-3 Communications

Ken Link, Jr. New Jersey State Police

Stew Potter Thales

Al Sadowski North Carolina Highway Patrol

Rick Taylor Harris Corporation

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Request for Information on the Topic of

Cognitive Radio Technologies for Public Safety Applications

1 Overview

The Wireless Innovation Forum (www.wirelessinnovation.org) is seeking information on current

and proposed Cognitive Radio (CR) technology developments for addressing communications

requirements for public safety. We are soliciting inputs from industry, academia, government

researchers and users, public safety agencies, and other interested entities. The Forum’s Public

Safety Special Interest Group (PS SIG), which coordinates the Forum’s activities that relate to

public safety1, will use this information for compiling a report that will provide

education to public safety leadership and users to help “de-mystify” the topic of cognitive

radio for the leadership and users;

increased awareness of future technological developments and trends to regulators, policy

makers, and standards developers;

information for public safety agencies that will to help plan communications system life

cycles;

identification of technology gaps and dependencies to help define future studies and

developments for researchers and product developers; and

a roadmap for technology development to enhance public safety communications

capabilities.

These responses will help set a broad research, development and implementation agenda to the

community and communicated to entities such as the FCC and public safety audiences.

Organizations and individuals providing responses to this Request for Information (RFI) will

be referenced in the report for their contributions (unless they elect to remain anonymous)

and thus can benefit from the enhanced exposure.

This assessment follows two previous studies2,3

published by the Public Safety SIG that

identifies use cases for cognitive radio technology. Each study included an analysis that

documented in detail a scenario describing communications occurring at a major incident; a

description of how cognitive communications capabilities could enhance user communications

directly relevant to effectiveness of the incident response activities; and a list of desirable

cognitive capabilities identified by the SIG.

1 See Appendix 1 for additional information regarding the Wireless Innovation Forum and its Public Safety Special

Interest Group. 2Wireless Innovation Forum, Use Cases for Cognitive Applications in Public Safety Communications Systems -

Volume 1: Review of the 7 July Bombing of the London Underground, Report No. SDRF-07-P-0019-V1.0.0,

available at http://groups.winnforum.org/d/do/1565.

3 Wireless Innovation Forum, Use Cases for Cognitive Applications in Public Safety Communications Systems

Volume 2: Chemical Plant Explosion Scenario, Report No. WINNF-09-P-0015-V1.0.0, available at

http://groups.winnforum.org/d/do/2325.

http://www.wirelessinnovation.org/

http://groups.winnforum.org/d/do/1565

http://groups.winnforum.org/d/do/2325

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Both studies concluded that Cognitive Radio technology will be instrumental in ensuring that

future public safety communication systems will fulfill user needs, but did not discuss the status

of technologies that can be leveraged to enable the cognitive capabilities that were identified.

Providing this additional technology status information is the purpose for this RFI and the

subsequent report that will be developed from the information that is gathered.

Section 2 of this RFI provides a glossary of acronyms used in this report. Instructions for the RFI

are provided in Section 3. Section 4 lists the key questions to be addressed in this RFI, and

Section 5 provides a conclusion to these questions.

The reader is encouraged to read three appendices that are also provided to help define the

context for the RFI questions. Appendix 1 provides additional information regarding the

Wireless Innovation Forum and Public Safety Special Interest Group. Appendices 2 and 3

describe “Key Concepts and Issues for Public Safety” and “Related Efforts” respectively.

2 Glossary

The following abbreviations are used in this document:

BER Bit Error Rate

DSA Dynamic Spectrum Access

IC Incident Command

LTE Long Term Evolution

MHz Megahertz

MIMO Multi-Input and Multi-Output

NIMS National Incident Management System

P25 Project 25

PS SIG Public Safety Special Interest Group

RF Radio Frequency

RFI Request For Information

TETRA TErrestrial Trunked RAdio

3 Instructions

For inquires about the RFI, please contact the Chair of the Public Safety Special Interest Group,

Fred Frantz, at +1 315-339-6184, or via email at [email protected]. For inquiries about

the Wireless Innovation Forum, please contact Lee Pucker at:

[email protected].

We additionally encourage the submission of any relevant white papers or product brochures.

The responses to this RFI will be reviewed by members of the SIG, which include industry

representatives; therefore do not include proprietary information. The Wireless Innovation

Forum intends to use the information it receives in response to this RFI (the “Contributions”) to

draft reports containing summaries, aggregate data and, in some instances, quotations from the

Contributions it has received (with proper attributions of authorship). By submitting your

response to this request for information, you acknowledge and agree that Wireless Innovation

Forum may, without charge and without further permission, use your Contribution in whole or in

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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part for the purposes described above, as well as copy, reproduce, distribute and publish part or

all of your Contribution, both internally and by incorporating it into future Wireless Innovation

Forum publications. Any information that you do not want attributed to your organization should

be so indicated.

We are requesting information on cognitive technologies (software and hardware) that can

facilitate desired capabilities within public safety radio communications systems. We are

specifically interested in learning about existing or evolving technologies and/or products, the

technical maturity of the technology, the feasibility of deploying such technologies, and through

integration into new or existing products, and information about any non-technical barriers (e.g.,

regulatory, operational) that may limit or impede deployment.

Within the following section, nine questions are highlighted with a shaded background similar to

that for this paragraph, and each question also provides particular areas of interest to help guide

the responses, although deviations of responses from the guide are certainly acceptable. Prior

to each question, there is a brief narrative to provide background and context for the question.

The reader can of course elect not to respond to all questions.

The following information is requested for each answer:

What technolog(ies) would support the desired capability?

Describe any product or research project that embodies the technology.

What is the current state of development for the technology being described (research, in

development, prototype, beta test, on market)?

Are there any regulatory barriers to the adoption of such technology?

Are there other non-technical (e.g . operational) barriers to the adoption of such technology?

In what time-frame will the capability be available?

Also, please include contact information that will allow members of the SIG to follow up in the

event that clarification of a response is desired.

4 RFI Questions

Cognitive radio technology is rapidly evolving in both military and commercial domains. While

certain aspects of today’s public safety radio systems incorporate some level of cognitive

capabilities (e.g., it can be argued that trunked public safety radio systems and roaming

capabilities meet the definition of “cognitive radio”4), there is significant potential for much

broader application of cognitive radio technology to enhance public safety communications

systems. While Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) is often identified as the key objective for

4 The term “cognitive radio” has been defined in a variety of ways. For definitional purposes, we use the definition published in

IEEE 1900.1: “a) A type of radio in which communication systems are aware of their environment and internal state and can

make decisions about their radio operating behavior based on that information and predefined objectives.

b) Cognitive radio [as defined in item a)] that uses software-defined radio, adaptive radio, and other technologies to adjust

automatically its behavior or operations to achieve desired objectives.” A more detailed analysis of various definitions of

cognitive radio and similar terms can be found in Cognitive Radio Definitions and Nomenclature, Document SDRF-06-P-0009-

v1.0.0.

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cognitive radios, there are additional potential applications of cognitive radio technology that the

Public Safety SIG identified in the two detailed studies referenced in Section 1. The questions

that follow pertain to these applications.

4.1 Interoperability for Public Safety

A number of technological and operational issues remain for voice and data systems that often

impede the emergency responders’ ability to interoperate because of incompatible systems.

Current technological solutions for providing voice interoperability through disparate systems

run the gamut from console patches to cross-band repeaters to audio switches to network-based

solutions. Current implementations facilitate interoperability, but they typically require a layer of

additional equipment external to the core communications systems. Bridge devices typically

require the same transmission to be concurrently broadcast over multiple radio systems and

frequencies within the same geographic area, thereby requiring additional system capacity and

spectrum. Deployable repeaters and switches often require time to mobilize, and once on-site

require additional time to configure and activate.

Question 1:

Contrary to the external devices described above, please provide information on innovations that

are native to end user radio equipment and systems, minimizing or eliminating dependence upon

an overlay of specialized interoperability equipment, patched transmissions, and so on. Examples

of such innovations include, but are not limited to, the following:

a) "Smarter" gateway devices

b) Advanced interoperability concepts utilizing multiband radios

c) Innovations for interoperating between P25 and other standards (e.g., TETRA )

d) Innovations for enhanced data interoperability (e.g., interoperability among disparate mix of

broadband through low speed data systems)

e) Interoperability between new and legacy capabilities (e.g., voice interoperability with

broadband network

f) Innovations that standardize procedures to facilitate the ability of “visiting” responders to

appropriately access communications systems (such as a “meeting point”)

g) Creation of a “Virtual System” from multiple disparate system

As with interoperability between public safety agencies, the SIG Use Case documents

(referenced in Section 1) identify a significant requirement for interoperability between first

responders and non-public safety communications systems. For example, communications may

be required between first responders, emergency management, and other organizations such as

other civilian government authorities (e.g., public health, public works, transportations),

organizations supporting critical infrastructure (e.g., utilities), tow truck and bus drivers,

National Guard, Department of Defense units. In some cases it also may be beneficial to allow

more seamless communications capabilities between selected cell phones and the public safety

network, of course with appropriate restrictions. This need can arise during major disasters and

events as well as daily challenges faced by public safety agencies.

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Question 2:

Please provide information regarding innovations that will enhance communication between

non-public safety resources and public safety users. Examples of such innovations include, but

are not limited to, prioritization of access and throughput, store-and-forward capabilities,

integration in support of incident command (IC) structure operations, and maintaining the

security and integrity of public safety communications.

4.2 Coverage Improvement

System coverage, i.e. providing radio access to voice and data system resources, is an important

requirement in a public safety communications system. The ideal solution for a public safety

communications system would provide access to all services at 100% of the locations where a

first responder may be needed, 100% of the time, with perfectly understandable voice quality

and/or ensured data delivery at acceptable data rates. This would include 100% access within

traditionally difficult locations such as basements, stairwells, tunnels, and buildings where users

often experience well over 30 dB RF signal penetration loss. Cost-benefit tradeoffs made when

procuring and designing public safety communications systems (as well as immutable factors

such as the laws of physics), result in systems that do not meet the ideal solution of ubiquitous

access. Also, in recent real-world cases like the London Bombing and Katrina disasters, system

access was further (and severely) compromised by loss of key supporting infrastructure, such as

radio network base stations, radio towers, and tunnel coverage devices. Thus there is a

continuing need to develop cost-effective means for improving system coverage in general, as

well as provide capabilities to rapidly adjust to the loss of infrastructure that impacts coverage.

Question 3:

Please provide information regarding solutions for enhancing public safety coverage. Examples

of such solutions may include, but are not limited to, the following:

a) Reconfiguration of responders’ radios, creating an ad-hoc extension to an existing network.

Such network extension would allow transmissions to be passed back and forth from the

incident site through a network of individual responder radios operating in peer-to-peer mode

effectively extending coverage of the main radio system/network.

b) Use of adaptive beamforming antennas to maximize gain in the direction of the desired

communication path and/or minimize gain (create a null) in the direction of a known

interfering signal.

c) Standards for interfacing “smart antennas” with cognitive radios (to define parameters such

as band, power capability, direction, null direction, polarization, and so on).

d) Adaptive modulation and/or data rate adjustment for modifying the link budget and

interference generation (on transmit) or suppression (on receive)

e) “Smart” frequency control to increase frequency separation between interference sources and

the desired radio signal. Adaptively change/modify receiver filter characteristics to provide

improved rejection of an interfering adjacent signal (e.g., by narrowing the receiver filter

bandwidth) or improved sensitivity when interference isn’t limiting coverage

f) Enhanced roaming algorithms

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g) Enhanced and/or adaptive channel coding algorithms

h) MIMO techniques

i) Adaptive receive processors

As another means for enhancing coverage, access to non-traditional network resources may be a

viable option for public safety. For example, additional data bandwidth may be operationally

required even in areas where voice coverage and capacity meet user requirements. Broadband

services provided via TV spectrum whitespace, or access to commercial services via cellular

provider data facilities may be exploited as a supplemental, or fallback, resources. For example,

commercial coverage might be available in a tunnel where specific public safety systems are not.

Access to supplemental resources would require appropriate wireless communications equipment

in vehicles, and appropriate policies must be formulated and implemented, defining when such

links could be activated.

Question 4:

Please provide information regarding non-traditional network solutions for coverage

enhancements and/or backup public safety use, including provisions for priority that can be made

available to public safety users and necessary changes to existing systems that would be

necessary for the solutions.

4.3 Spectrum Utilization Optimization and Dynamic Spectrum Access

One of the critical issues faced by the public safety community is limited availability of RF

spectrum to address current and emerging requirements for mission-critical communications.

Increasing public safety reliance on bandwidth-intensive data such as video, paired with

continuing reliance upon a limited number of narrowband voice channels when responding to

large scale complex incidents, creates increasing pressure for spectrum resources. Cognitive

radio technology shows promise as a technological path for addressing this issue.

Question 5:

Please provide information about technologies that can provide the following capabilites:

a) Identify and optimize network capacity and loading. For example,

prioritization of transmissions.

control of access priority, per subscriber unit.

adjust network operations to accommodate significant changes in traffic volume.

accommodate direct communication between first responders and non-first responders.

re-allocate spectrum used by public safety users as incident response communications

demands decline.

Identify and mitigate capacity issues with wireless or wireline backhaul components of the

network.

b) Dynamically access additional spectrum resources in the most effective manner, consistent

with regulations and policy. For example,

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identify situations, and associated threshold criteria, whereby dynamic spectrum access can

be initiated.

identify available spectrum resources that can be utilized (sensing and policy limited).

exploit all available spectrum resources as needed, and integrate additional spectrum

resources into existing communications capabilities, including disparate frequency bands and

protocols.

adjust spectrum utilization based on defined regulations and policy [e.g., a network sharing

agreement].

aggregation of multiple radio networks to provide improved data rate, coverage and

redundancy.

4.4 Communicate Reconfiguration Information

Public safety communications are generally provided through a network consisting of some

infrastructure and accessed through number of end-user (subscriber) devices. Thus system

reconfiguration decisions cannot occur independently, and must be coordinated through all

network components. Decisions must be based on knowledge of the current configuration of all

nodes that are part of the network, and reconfiguration commands must be transmitted to

affected nodes securely and reliably.

Most public safety network configurations are static, based on a pre-planned configuration. Some

networks have a limited ability to communicate reconfiguration information, such as an ability to

distribute encryption keys and re-key end user devices over-the-air.

Question 6:

Please provide information about technologies that can provide the following:

a) Query/exchange information among the network infrastructure and end user radios.

Examples of information include, but are not limited to vendor, network/end user radio type,

and capabilities [e.g., available modes, version numbers, reconfiguration capability, etc.]

Also, suggestions for standard methods for transmission of network information are solicited

b) Identify and communicate accessible spectrum resources that can be utilized to offload some

calls based on real-time identification of available spectrum.

c) Reconfigure [subscriber and/or network radios and antennas] to access additional spectrum

resources when required

d) Rapidly adjust air interface transmit power, waveforms, frequencies, filtering, and receiver

attenuation (based on network & end user radio commands).

e) Specify and reconfigure as appropriate air interface transmit and receive parameters, on a

transmission or message sequence basis.

f) Reconfigure/Reprogram radios over the air with ensured integrity

4.5 Manage Communications Resources

Real-time management of network resources is critical, particularly when specific situations in

which incident communications requirements exceed system capacity, creating a need for more

effective network resource management tools than those that are commonly available today. The

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likelihood of the occurrence of such situations will increase as bandwidth-intensive applications

such as video become more prevalent in incident response. Optimizing public safety spectrum

use in critical situations and ensuring that available spectrum resources are accessed in support of

the most critical operational needs (regardless of how specific spectrum resources are allocated)

on a real-time basis, will be critical for ensuring that effective in communication capabilities are

maintained for future incident, responders. The required innovations are critical regardless of

whether applied to public safety-only networks or shared public-private networks.

Question 7:

Please provide information about technologies that can manage communications resources.

Examples of possible related innovations include but are not limited to the following:

a) Monitor network resource allocation & associated issues, including, but not limited to

anticipating network resource allocation issues and providing an effective display of current

conditions and generate appropriate alarms.

b) Provide information about the RF environment at a user’s location.

c) Geolocate network nodes

d) Predict signal and interference levels at any potential subscriber location.

e) Communicate in a standardized way information about that status of communications assets

to support network utilization and Comm Unit Leader5 functions and tools

4.6 Support Incident Command

Typical public safety mutual assistance activities involve personnel responding from multiple

agencies and arriving on scene as part of large incident response. Given the scope of large

incidents, responders may be from jurisdictions for which there are no standing mutual aid

agreements and in place and not equipped to support pre-planned communications

interoperability capabilities. This means that upon arrival to the incident their radios may not be

directly interoperable with local communications systems being used to manage incident

response. A desired technological capability is that radios arriving with visiting first responders

can be dynamically reconfigured specifically to support the in-operation pre-defined incident

response, and also specifically support the arriving responders’ role within the incident response

structure.

The capability that an arriving radio should provide is defined by a function of the role that the

responder user is performing—for example, supervisors in the incident command structure

require specific capabilities that responders in other roles do not. This concept provides the

incident response management team greater control of communications resources, ensuring that

ubiquitous interoperability does not result in “everyone talking to everyone at once on the same

frequency.” After arrival on scene, following radio reconfiguration to support a responders’ role,

mechanisms must also be in place to ensure that a device reconfiguration was successfully

executed.

5 Comm Unit Leader is a specific function defined in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) adopted as

a standard in the United States for incident response. Other incident management systems/procedures are assumed

to have comparable functions.

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In today’s public safety environment, unlike devices in commercial cellular networks,

reconfigurations are typically manual in nature completed and require a responder to report to an

incident staging area equipped to make radio modifications. In addition, radio configuration

templates are based on static definition of communications capabilities, independent of the actual

role that the responder has in supporting the incident command structure.

Question 8:

Please provide information about technologies that can support incident command. Examples of

possible related innovations include but are not limited to the following:

a) Identify an over-the-air "meeting point" for incoming responders to register and receive

configuration information

b) Associate users, radios, radio capabilities, and user roles [e.g., roles within a NIMS

construct]. For example,

Define explicitly [i.e., in a machine-interpretable form] user roles within an incident response

structure.

Store in a machine-interpretable form a user’s credentials.

Authenticate a specific user as qualified for a specific role.

Define appropriate radio capabilities in support of a specific user’s role.

c) Dynamically reconfigure communications capabilities (both subscriber and network

capabilities) using criteria based on both the user’s current role, and incident policy,

mitigating how dynamic reconfiguration negatively impacts ongoing communications and

minimize bandwidth required to support over the air transmittal of device reconfiguration

information

4.7 Rollback Configuration Changes

Given the capability to reconfigure communications capabilities in near-real-time, there must

also be a capability to undue, or roll back, changes if they result in unintended consequences,

otherwise degrade communications, or to simply restore a communications device to a pre-

incident configuration. For the situation in which a reconfiguration needs to be rolled back,

networks and subscriber devices may maintain a configuration history that allows previous

configurations to be restored. However, rolling back a configuration change that involves the

network and subscriber equipment is not typically automated in current systems. Thus changes

that turn out to have a negative impact on communication usually can only be reversed by

manually resetting subscriber equipment software configurations.

In the case of restoring default or home agency configurations as a responder is released from an

incident, the most significant shortfall is associated with radios that cannot be reconfigured over

the air. Reprogramming radios that must be tethered to programming hardware can currently take

a significant amount of time (days or weeks) due to the logistics of transporting radios to a

reprogramming point and manually loading configuration software updates. Radio security is not

specifically addressed here, but some LMR manufacturers require use of special hardware or

software keys prior to accessing radio configuration functions, creating additional logistical

challenges.

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Question 9:

Please provide information about cognitive radio technology that can support rolling back

cognitive system configuration. Example capabilities include, but are not limited to:

Storing [previous] device configuration information.

Recognizing when a device reconfiguration results in a degraded capability.

Restoring [or rolling back] the device capabilities to a previous configuration.

Rapidly restoring a default configuration and/or the configuration of the device prior to the

incident.

5 Conclusions

The questions and comments above are intended to elicit information on new approaches to solve

problems encountered by the need of Public Safety first responders to communicate. As many of

these difficulties have been experienced in the context of currently operational technologies, they

may reflect paradigms or perspectives inherent in more mature functionality. The Forum does

not wish to impose any specific context on responses to their RFI. Responders are encouraged to

“think outside the box”, and not be limited by existing constraints. Introduction of new

architectures and concepts clearly involves transitions that must recognize and overcome such

conditions, but we do not want to impose them in a way that will inhibit creative thinking.

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Appendix 1 Additional Information on the Wireless Innovation Forum and

Public Safety Special Interest Group

The Wireless Innovation Forum™ is a non-profit “mutual benefit corporation” dedicated driving

technology innovation in commercial, civil, and defense communications around the world.

Forum members bring a broad base of experience in Software Defined Radio (SDR), Cognitive

Radio(CR) and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) technologies in diverse markets and at all

levels of the wireless value chain to address emerging wireless communications requirements

through enhanced value, reduced total life cost of ownership, and accelerated deployment of

standardized families of products, technologies, and services. The PS SIG is an organization

within the Wireless Innovation Forum that provides a focus for activities in which the public

safety community has an interest. Goals of the PS SIG are to interface with both

communications users and commercial vendors associated with the public safety community

with a goal of increasing awareness of SDR related issues, publicize activities of the Forum that

address those issues, and increase participation by the public safety community in Forum

activities. The PS SIG also interacts with other forum committees and working groups to ensure

that the public safety community’s inputs are addressed in other publications and initiatives

undertaken by the Forum.

The public safety community, as defined by the PS SIG, includes all first responders (e.g.,

emergency medical services, fire services, police/law enforcement. It also includes secondary

responders (e.g., civil government, emergency management, environment health personnel, civil

protection/homeland security/homeland defense units, search and rescue units, hospitals, relief

organizations, public utilities, transportation), and other elements of the criminal justice system.

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Appendix 2 Key Concepts/Issues for Public Safety Communications

One of the most important fundamental requirements associated with public safety

communication needs is the ability for first responders to communicate as needed, regardless of

technological differences in communications equipment (e.g., different frequency bands,

different protocols, different modes, manufacturer specific capabilities, different versions of

hardware and software). Most of the effort in recent years has been focused on enabling

“mission-critical” voice communications. There are still open challenges related to achieving

ubiquitous voice interoperability, although concerted efforts in development of technology,

governance, standards, have led to vast improvements. Gateway devices and multiprotocol land

mobile radios are common and multiband radios are beginning to penetrate the market.

However, even today many current interoperability approaches do not utilize spectrum in the

most efficient manner.

As significant progress is being made to address the challenges associated with interoperability,

public Technological advances that drive commercial thirst for spectrum also provide the

foundation for public safety applications that also require increasing access to spectrum. These

applications provide a wealth of information to public safety users such as the ability to

download security video to a police car, devices that monitor firefighter biometrics and

equipment safety and are turning attention to other equally challenging issues. Spectrum

availability is an issue for all wireless systems, including those for the public safety community

in that spectrum resources currently allocated to public safety users are limited. Mission critical

information such as status and real-time access to hazardous material information is resulting in

increasing data transfer through wired and wireless networks in addition to voice traffic. The

resulting information volume has the potential to overwhelm communication network resources

and capabilities as well as the ability of responders to process information.

In response to the continuing growth in data volume, U.S. public safety user groups have

endorsed LTE as the protocol of choice for 700 MHz broadband data (as a national option) and

the FCC has identified this technology as a requirement for use in 700Mz public safety

broadband spectrum.

An increasing reliance on resources and capabilities enabled through wireless broadband data

technology has created new interoperability challenges associated with:

multiple networks and wireless data networking technologies;

multiple frequency bands;

multiple protocols and varying protocol implementations;

constantly evolving wireless technology standards

multiple encryption approaches

increased complexity of data

migration of voice services onto data networks.

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Current proposals for a national broadband network in the 700 MHz frequency band present a

significant opportunity for public safety to have a dedicated network built from the ground up

following standard protocols. However, we strongly believe that there is a significant role for

evolving cognitive radio technology. Spectrum efficiency will continue to be a critical aspect of

a nationwide network. Efficient management of resources will be critical, as will exploitation of

additional spectrum when requirements surpass existing resources (e.g., leveraging 700MHz, 4.9

GHz, unlicensed, and white space spectrum in a major emergency). Other issues will include

graceful upgrade of product software, graceful migration to evolving technologies, logistics

associated with provisioning and support, leveraging commercial hardware and software

development, improved efforts while addressing unique public safety needs, maintaining ease of

use, and reducing life cycle costs. Maintaining robust and reliable communications in the face of

intentional or ambient interference will continue to be an issue. Costs, extended lifecycle

timeframes and affordability have traditionally been limiting factors limiting the extent to which

the public safety community has been able to refresh and deploy new technologies.

Future public safety communications platforms will likely be implemented as a system of

systems reliant upon on a variety of networks. They will involve emerging network technologies,

standards, protocols, and frequency bands, and differing implementation choices made by

network operators in support of local user needs. These networks must support services ranging

from short-range communication capabilities such as those provided by personal area networks,

to long haul communication at a national or international level. We believe software defined and

cognitive radio technologies can provide capabilities that exploit all available communications

resources to facilitate interoperability and support seamless “virtual” communications

capabilities to public safety users.

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Appendix 3 Related Efforts

The there are several, concurrent, ongoing commercial and government efforts focused on

addressing the needs of public safety personnel and agencies. This RFI effort, undertaken by the

Public Safety Special Interest Group, is intended to build upon, and complement, these efforts.

The following list is not exhaustive, and focuses on government initiatives that also address the

overall issue of leveraging evolving technology for public safety. (Technology research

activities are not included in this list, but rather are the types of information that we are soliciting

through this RFI.)

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ): NIJ conducts research and development on

technologies for state, local, and tribal law enforcement and criminal justice needs. NIJ’s

communications portfolio includes research, development, test, and evaluation activities that

include development of cognitive radio technologies developed in response to identified

public safety needs. NIJ is currently funding research into a number of software defined and

cognitive radio topics, such as:

Automated discovery of public safety networks

Reconfigurable radios

Intelligent, handheld land mobile radio network bridging

Steerable directional antennas

Smart power management

Network switching to avoid disruption

Channel/path bonding

The Department of Commerce: The Department of Commerce Public Safety

Communications Research (PSCR) program acts as an objective technical advisor and

laboratory to DHS/OIC and the response community to accelerate the adoption and

implementation of only the most critical public safety communication standards and

technologies. PSCR examines public Safety Requirements, Specifications/Standards, Test

and Evaluation, and records Lessons Learned. PSCR support includes technology research in

support of the following:

Radio over Wireless Broadband,

Project 25 support (i.e., P25 compliance assessment, P25 standards development,

P25 Security, P25 ISSI),

Public Safety Voice over IP and

Research in support of public safety Audio and video quality.

The Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program is deeply involved in the

rapidly progressing topic of Public Safety 700 MHz Broadband (e.g., Public Safety LTE test

and demonstration network as well as LTE PS standards support). To help move forward

broadband technology for public safety communications, PSCR is building a national public

safety broadband demonstration network and providing technical advocacy for the public

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safety community through requirements gathering and standards development. More details

can be found at www.PSCR.gov.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) SAFECOM is a public safety-driven

communications program, managed by the Office of Emergency Communications and the

Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) of the U.S. Department of Homeland

Security. SAFECOM works to build partnerships between all levels of government, linking

the strategic planning and implementation needs of the emergency response community with

Federal, State, local, and tribal governments to improve emergency response through more

effective and efficient interoperable wireless communications. Under the SAFECOM

program, public safety communications Statement of Requirements and Architecture

Framework documents have been published. More details can be found at

http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/.

The National science Foundation (NSF) is sponsoring a research & development program

entitled Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS). The EARS program “… targets

innovative and potentially transformational research that carefully considers the interplay of

science, engineering, technology, applications, economics, social sciences, and public policy

on spectrum efficiency and access.”6

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)): The ETSI Technical

Committee on Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS) has a Working Group specifically

focusing on the application of software defined radio and cognitive radio technology to

public safety.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is addressing regulatory aspects of DSA

technology (including proceedings that are asking specific questions regarding the regulatory

considerations of deploying DSA in public safety communications.

This RFI effort undertaken by the Public Safety Special Interest Group is intended to build upon,

and complement, these efforts.

6 http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503480, accessed 28 February 2011.

http://www.pscr.gov/

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503480

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